


Shipwrecked

by timeheist



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-04
Updated: 2012-06-04
Packaged: 2017-11-06 20:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/422860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeheist/pseuds/timeheist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the Doctor wondered if he'd done right by Donna.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shipwrecked

Too often he had wondered if he should have given Donna Noble the choice between losing her mind and losing her memory. If he had, what would she have said? What would she have chosen? The way she’d begged him, when he’d explained what he had to do, had both broken his hearts and hardened his soul. If he had one, since he’d never been sure – Time Lords didn’t practice a religion, per se. But he couldn’t bear to be the death of another close friend, no matter the cost. But as much as he beat himself up about it, he knew that she’d forgiven him, and in this new body he had to accept that; as best as she could forgive a stranger to her, at least. That was the Donna that she never cared to share – the loving one. But now she had Shaun, Shaun Temple – Donna Temple-Noble, he’d have to start calling her. But she was still his best friend.

Amelia’s Pond’s choice had reminded him of Donna – unlike Donna, Amelia had chosen to forget one of the most fundamental things she had ever learnt. It wasn’t quite the same, but the knowing would still have killed her; it would have gotten her fed to the starwhale. He didn’t know Amy yet but he had still been furious, not at her actions but at the choice that had led to them. He really was a new man, but he had been slowly losing his faith in the world around him – he genuinely believed that everything happened for a reason, but now he no longer saw what reason there was for Donna. Yes, this regeneration was a fairytale of himself, generally cheerful, but maybe he wasn’t as clever as he’d thought. Maybe he could have saved Donna, and taken better care of Amelia.

He’d sent Amy out to buy fish and chips, for nostalgia’s sake; she’d brought up the very good point that he’d probably not have the taste for them anymore and that it was a waste of his money but had gone anyway. The Doctor still hadn’t eaten that apple, she’d pointed out, although he had put it in the Zero Room so that it wouldn’t go off. But as the Doctor now stood by Donna’s house, disguised even from Wilfred by the regeneration and wishing that he could just take her into his arms and back into the TARDIS too, he knew that, like with Donna, that was why they would always be friends. And maybe that was the reason he hadn’t given Donna a choice.


End file.
